Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
13 For You have possessed my core. You have covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wondrously made. Marvelous are Your works; and my soul knows it well!
15 My bones are not hidden from You; though I was made in secret, fashioned beneath, in the Earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was without form; for in Your Book were all things written, days fashioned at a time when there were still none of them.
17 How dear, therefore, are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
33 And as Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked. Behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two maids.
2 And he put the maids and their children first, then Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph last.
3 So, he went before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.
4 And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept.
5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” And he answered, “The children whom God, by His grace, has given your servant.”
6 Then the maids came near, they and their children, and bowed themselves.
7 Also Leah, with her children, came near and bowed down. And after that, Joseph and Rachel drew near and did reverence.
8 Then he said, “What do you mean by all these flocks which I met?” Who answered, “I have sent them so that I may find favor in the sight of my lord.”
9 And Esau said, “I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”
10 But Jacob answered, “No, please, if I have found grace now in your sight, then receive my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, as though I had seen the face of God, because you have accepted me.
11 “Please take my blessing that is brought to you. For God has had mercy on me; and therefore, I have all things.” So, he compelled him and he took it.
12 And he said, “Let us take our journey and go; and I will go before you.”
13 Then he answered him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and the ewes and cows are with young under my hand. And if they should overdrive them one day, all the flock would die.
14 “Let now my lord go before his servant; and I will drive softly, according to the pace of the cattle which are before me, and as the children are able to endure, until I come to my lord, to Seir.”
15 Then Esau said, “Then I will leave some of my folk with you.” And he answered, “What is the need? Let me find grace in the sight of my lord.”
16 So Esau returned and went his way that same day, to Seir.
17 And Jacob went forward toward Succoth, and built a house, and made booths for his cattle. Therefore, he called the name of the place, Succoth.
21 Tell me, you who would be under the Law, do you not hear the Law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by a servant and one by a free woman.
23 But he who was by the servant was born after the flesh. And he who was by the free woman was born by promise.
24 These things are allegorical. For these mothers are the two Testaments. The one called Hagar begat those of mount Sinai, who are enslaved.
25 For Hagar (or Sinai) is a mountain in Arabia, and it is now presently Jerusalem. And she is enslaved with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem above is free and is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who bear no children! Break forth, and cry, you who do not travail! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.”
28 Therefore, brothers, we are like Isaac: children of the promise.
29 But just as at that time the one who was born after the flesh persecuted the one who was born after the Spirit, so also it is now.
30 But what says the Scripture? ‘Put out the servant and her son. For the son of the servant shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.’
31 Then, brothers, we are not children of the servant, but of the free woman.
5 Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty whereby Christ has made us free. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
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